Great contracting companies start at the top with leadership. Leadership sets the tone for the rest of the team, putting talented people in a position to excel and helping bring the best out of those who could use a little more attention. Good leadership allows the owner to step away for a day, a week, a month, and know the company can thrive without them.

In the first international episode(!) of the Contractor Coffee Club podcast, Mark Matteson is joined by legendary industry consultant Gary Elekes. Gary shares some tried and true leadership strategies and coaching tactics he’s picked up over his three-plus decades in home services — strategies that have helped him succeed at some of the biggest-name companies in the industry, as well as in his role as a serial entrepreneur who has acquired and turned around a number of contracting companies since 2003; strategies that allow him to sit in the Cayman Islands while his companies can survive without him.